Modelling and control of a multi phase induction system for metal disc heating

This paper presents the study of a multi-phase induction system for metal disc heating. It proposes a complete electrical and thermal modelling of the whole system in PSim software, with a reduced simulation time. An optimisation procedure allows us to calculate the optimal parameters for calibrating the system in order to obtain a uniform heating of the work piece. This was possible from the knowledge of the current density distribution extracted from the finite element software Flux2D^® and from the impedance matrix that describes the electrical behaviour of the three coils supplied by current source inverters. This studies also concern a first simple current control method. As a result, the experimental thermal distributions are in good agreement with simulated ones.